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With the remonstrations of a certain Martian - as well the stern-but-fair General M - ringing in my shell-likes, I thought it prudent to put down a mark of intent, less a prolonged silence give rise to dark mutterings of bad-faith and fair-weathering modelling around the mess. So: without further ceremony let me introduce the next offering: Fairey's big-shouldered beast of burden, the new Barracuda from Special Hobby: On first inspection this kit looks highly disappointing as there appears nothing for me to cut off, scribe, or stuff full of filler to be a pleasant change from the company I usually keep. I haven't yet checked it against photos to any degree, but the moulding looks sharp and nicely incised, whilst the plastic itself feels just 'right' to the touch: Even the bit for poking holes in ships has an well-realized set of screws: The box-art I find delightfully-bizarre: a pen-and-watercolour job of the kind you usually find adorning the cover of The People's Friend, or B. Wooster's column in Milady's Boudoir: I'd originally intended to use the Barracuda canopy from the excellent Falcon FAA set, but putting it up against the Special Hobby one that came with the kit, I'm genuinely not sure it's necessary. What do you think? The SH one is the bottom of the two: Being the first time I've ever done an SH kit I was surprised at the quality and detail of the instructions as well - are they always this concise and well-done graphically? I'm not at all sure about those Eduard decals however: Do you see that rather unsightly patina across the surface of the roundels? I wonder will that dissolve-off in the water or do they come pre-weathered for that mucky maritime look.... The kit comes with two sets of badges, one for a Barra from Victorious, the other from Furious, both from the Spring of 1944. Despite the provision of a torpedo in the kit, SH note that both these aircraft were involved in bombing strikes on Tirpitz, so it's a straight choice of whether you want to tool up as a dive-bomber for these raids, or go 'fishing' on other missions. From what I know of the Barra, it was more often used in the bombing role than as a fish-flinger - I still haven't decided yet which route to take. There's a rather handsome Stanley Lewis painting of Barracudas attacking Tirptiz in the FAA museum. (The baldy-heed in the reflection is mine!): That's the opening salvo gentleman. I've still a lot of research to do on the various structures - though as there's not a massive amount published in this baby I'm currently relying on Pilot's Notes and the Warpaint volume, plus whatever images are floating around the interwebs. Any shots of the cockpit pilot/navigator/TAG spaces would be most welcomed. I shall certainly be ducking-in to see how the Yeovilton lads are getting on with their superb restoration work and peering over their shoulders from time-to-time: Yeovilton Barracuda Project I managed to have squint in the windows at the restoration work there back in July: There's even a (relatively) local Barracuda connection I only discovered recently : http://www.csn.ul.ie/~dan/war/md987.htm I love the bit about ' The three British airmen were accomodated a second night locally, this time in a hotel in Rosslare town.' Oh look- there's an emoticon for 'accomodated' - Sorry for the rambling tone of this; new model and all that, tends to make a chap a bit giddy.... Enjoy the rest of your weekends. Tony